From left: TripAdmit CEO John Maguire and CTO Andrew Kelly. Image: TripAdmit
Although the tourism industry has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Irish ticketing start-up TripAdmit has raised €300,000 in seed funding.
Dublin start-up TripAdmit has announced that it raised €300,000 in seed funding for its tour and activity ticketing platform.
While it comes at a challenging time for the tourism sector, TripAdmit said that the funding will help it expand its platform as Irish tourism organisations return to business after the coronavirus crisis.
TripAdmit, which was featured in our Start-up of the Week series last year, has developed a solution for B2B distribution partners that aims to help them earn ancillary revenue while cutting down the time that tourists spend queuing for popular attractions.
The company said that as part of the investment, and in an effort to help boost the industry, it plans to provide its platform free of charge to a number of Irish tour operators to help them after Covid-19 restrictions are eased. Interested operators can apply here.
Seed funding
The seed round was led by investor Thomas Jones. The start-up said that it expects to raise further capital in the near future.
For now, TripAdmit plans to use the investment and Jones’ expertise to grow its team and expand sales, marketing and engineering operations to bring the platform to more customers.
Founded in April 2019, the start-up provides a digital ticketing platform that can be integrated with tour and activity operators’ websites, enabling them to sell online through their own website and third-party sites. These tickets allow visitors to skip the queues at attractions and activities they’re interested in.
TripAdmit said that Campsited, an Irish-founded booking engine for camping holidays across Europe, was one of the first companies to leverage its platform to integrate local tours and activities with its users.
Commenting on the investment, Jones said: “This technology has the power to both modernise and stimulate Ireland’s tourism industry at a crucial time. TripAdmit’s founders and dedicated team have built a world-class platform and I look forward to working with the company during this next important chapter.”
A ‘timely’ investment
Although the tourism industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with travel restrictions introduced in many parts of the world, TripAdmit said that this is a “timely” opportunity for the digitalisation of tourism.
The start-up’s CEO, John Maguire, said that the Irish tourism industry has been “battered” by the coronavirus crisis and that there’s a big journey ahead to recovery.
“We expect local tourism to return quickly, and with a great degree of enthusiasm from a community that has been cooped up for so long. This investment and expansion of our platform will help local operators, particularly in rural areas, maximise that opportunity and digitalise for the modern traveller.”
